2002-07-21 04:00:00 PDT Boston -- Taking direct aim at the power structure of the world's largest religious denomination, more than 4,000 Catholics from across the United States gathered here Saturday and vowed to transform a church that they say betrayed them by failing to protect children from sexual abuse.

The members of Voice of the Faithful, a lay reform group born in a church basement in Wellesley, Mass., just five months ago, unanimously approved a petition to Pope John Paul II demanding that he hold accountable any bishop who reassigned an abusive priest or concealed such crimes.

They collected money for church ministries, saying they will help finance Massachusetts charitable missions hurt because many Catholics are unwilling to give money to funds controlled by Boston Cardinal Bernard Law, who has been criticized for failing to remove abusive priests.

They offered prayers and standing ovations for victims, saying their church's spiritual leaders too often failed to believe or support them. And they gave an award to a whistle-blowing priest, saying they are taking it upon themselves to honor priests of integrity.

"Today we are asserting our right to participate in the decision-making processes of each parish, each diocese and the entire church," said James Post,

a Boston University professor of management who serves as president of Voice of the Faithful.

Law has assigned his top aide to meet with the organization's leadership, but has offered neither support nor condemnation of its gathering or its goals.

Thousands of men and women, many of them in late middle-age or older, wore buttons Saturday saying "Survivors First" and attended workshops on topics such as "Creating a sexually safe parish." The group's founder, Nobel Peace Prize-winning cardiologist James Muller, declared the need for a lay power structure at the local, national and global level that will represent the voice of the 1 billion Catholic laypeople.

"The core of the problem is centralized power, with no voice of the faithful," Muller said. "The people of Boston know what to do about absolute power -- they showed the world 200 years ago."